Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Heroes of the Week: Garen, Peter, and Kirill

While the news is usually focused on hate, corruption, and crime, not all is lost. While your favorite politician was at the office shredding incriminating documents into the wee hours of the morning, or as his publicist says, "working late to serve you, his constituents," everyday heroes were at work.

Though Tucson certainly has its own amazing stories of heroics, our story again begins in California. Boys ditch school, investigate smoke, save old woman and her dog from a house fire and then return to school like nothing happened. It's a bit more complex than your average Buzzfeed read.

Garen, Peter, and Kirill left school early to stick it to the man by declining to fully participate in a free education designed to give them marketable employment skills. While out of class, this week’s heroes noticed smoke coming from a building and immediately stopped whatever responsible activity they were engaged in to check out the smoke. When they found the source of the smoke, they found a house with seasonal decorations which featured flames and exploding oxygen tanks.

They rushed to the first person they saw, who told them that there was a 94-year-old woman still inside. After trying to enter through the front door but being unable to push through the smoke, they ran to the back yard and unsuccessfully tried to put the fire out with a garden hose. Then they tried the back door to no avail. Once they realized that there were no options for putting out the fire or going around the billowing smoke, they opened the door, ducked down, and hoped for the best.

Miraculously, they were able to pull the woman and her dog from the house safely, as well as making it out alive themselves. As they pulled the distressed damsel from the house, she addressed her situation modestly by yelling “I’m on fire!” She was later treated at a San Francisco hospital and has since recovered.

After the rescue, the boys returned to class like nothing had happened because, hey, why wouldn't they? After learning of their heroic feat, their principal called them to his office... and rewarded them with four hours of mandated community service.

In summary, Peter Kravariotis, Kirill Yantikov, and Garen Kissoyan are true heroes. They twice tried to safely rescue the nonagenarian and her dog from a flaming home, but then gave up on the "safely" aspect and instead crawled in through the smoke and pulled her out. Had they not beaten the ambulance and firetrucks there, we would instead be reading a tragic story of a loving California grandmother who perished in a house fire.

Until next week, may all your dreams come true.

Note: Some media outlets offer slightly differing details on the events in this story, including which door the heroes went through.